I'd want to read more of what kind of reform Ford does support before I'd categorize his philosophy as being "New Deal."

I'm favorably disposed toward some kind of private savings account but I'll admit that the amount of added debt, up to two trillion dollars, is pretty sobering.

We don't seem to have figured out yet how much the prescription drug benefit is going to cost us -- so what would these two items together mean for future borrowing?

Ford may be in the beginnings of trying to climb higher on the Democratic Party ladder in which case he may be turning left. Richard Gephardt was once pro-life as was Al Gore.

I honestly don't understand this post, JC. What Ford saying in this passage seems to be, primarily, that social security reform isn't worth stacking on yet more debt at this point. Since when did the basic idea of fiscal rectitude cease to be a conservative mainstay, and start to sound to conservative ears like "New Deal philosophy"?
That he'd be willing to entertain an actually funded transition to some sort of private accounts sure sounds pretty New Dem-ish to me.

It looks more like he's taking a deficit hawk position than a New Deal one. I'd agree that tacking on $2 trillion or so of transitional costs to the national debt might not be the best way to go, but the spending cuts and tax increases that would be required to do it without going even further into hock won't be pretty.